1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a member for supporting roll paper or sheet for home use or for business use such as the roll sheet for printing, a cooking paper and a paper towel and the manufacturing process of the above-described supporting member, the box for holding roll paper provided with a supporting member and the mounting process, further a recorder provided with the above-described box as a means for supplying a record medium and an information processing system such as a word processor and a facsimile provided with the above-described recorder as an output means.
2. Related Background Art
A box (hereinafter called "a holding box") for holding or containing roll paper for home use or for business use such as a cooking paper and a paper towel, and the roll sheet (hereinafter called the roll sheet for printing or only the roll sheet) used for a recorder for an information processing system such as a word processor and a facsimile has been proposed as a protecting case used when roll paper is transported or the box for holding roll paper when it is used. To make description clearly understandable, the roll sheet used for a recorder for an information processing system will be described below.
In the case of the roll sheet for printing provided with it held in the above-described case, the roll sheet holder is required for positioning between a word processor and the roll sheet when printing is performed on the roll sheet by a word processor or for smoothing rotation of the roll sheet in printing. Therefore, the roll sheet holder is sold together with the roll sheet or it is required to be bought separately. As a result, a problem that not only the manufacturing costs but their sales prices of the roll sheet and the roll sheet holder are high occurs. Therefore, the roll sheet holding box which can be utilized as a holder for supporting the roll sheet when it is used is proposed.
Utility Model Laid-Open Nos. 5-9957 and 5-9958 disclose the structure for holding the roll sheet for printing inside a case via a supporting member. FIGS. 12, 13 and 14 show the conventional three examples for holding the roll sheet inside a case via a supporting member.
FIG. 12 is a perspective drawing for explaining an example (the first conventional example) of the box for the roll sheet for printing disclosed in Utility Model Laid-Open No. 5-9957. In this example, a long shaft 103 with flanges at both ends functions as a supporting member and this long shaft 103 is through the hollow core of the roll sheet 102. Such design that the roll sheet 102 is set in the position where the peripheral surface of it is not contact with the inner wall of the box 101 is made. Further, the flanges are fixed on both side walls of the box 101. The end of the roll sheet 102 is output upward from an opening like a slit formed on the side of the box 101.
FIG. 13 is a perspective drawing for explaining another example (the second conventional embodiment) of the box for the roll sheet for printing disclosed in Utility Model Laid-Open No. 5-9958. In this example, the above-described long shaft 103 is flexible. As this flexible long shaft 103' can be reduced when it is not used, it can be housed in the box together with the roll sheet 102. When the long shaft is used, it is stretched and is through the hollow core of the roll sheet 102 to support the roll sheet 102, and in the meantime, both ends of the shaft are fixed on the side walls of the box 101.
FIG. 14 is a perspective drawing for explaining the other example (the third conventional embodiment) of the box for the roll sheet for printing disclosed in Utility Model Laid-Open No. 5-9957. In this example, a pair of holding plates 134 are used in place of the above-described long shaft 103 or 103'. The holding plate 134 consists of a rectangular plate member 134a and a cylindrical shaft 134b mounted on the center of the surface of the above-described member. When they are used, a pair of holding plates are disposed on both side walls of the box 101 with the shafts of them opposite each other and the two opposite shafts 134b function as the roll sheet supporting member by inserting them into the hollow core from both sides of the roll sheet. The holding plates 134 are fixed on the inner side walls of the box 101.
However, the box for the roll sheet proposed in Utility Model Laid-Open Nos. 5-9957 and 5-9958 have the following problems:
In the above-described first conventional embodiment, a longer shaft than the width of the roll sheet is used and the long shaft is constituted so that it always supports the roll sheet both when used and transported. Therefore, both the shaft and the box are required to be formed by material and in a shape much stronger than the minimum strength required when they are used. As a result, their manufacturing costs and sales price are higher. Further, the long shaft is constituted so that it is through the hollow core of the roll sheet and both ends of it are protruded from those of the roll sheet. Therefore, it is difficult to wrap the roll sheet in a member such as a protective sheet for protecting the roll sheet from environmental changes of temperature and humidity. In the meantime, if the roll sheet is not wrapped in the above-described member, a problem that the quality of paper is deteriorated to result in the deterioration of printing quality while the roll sheet is stored in a physical distribution storehouse or a shop occurs.
In the above-described second conventional embodiment, a flexible and complicatedly-shaped shaft is required. Therefore, as an elastic member such as a spring is required to be provided in a shaft and a plurality of cylindrical members with different diameters are required, not only the manufacturing process is complicated and the manufacturing costs are increased but the sales price is higher.
In the above-described third conventional embodiments, the box is required to be much larger-sized than the size of the box required in the above-described first or second conventional embodiment to wrap the roll sheet in a protective sheet and to house a supporting member together with the wrapped roll sheet in the protective sheet in the box. Therefore, the manufacturing costs of the box and the costs required to enable disassembly of the supporting member are higher. A problem that a considerable large gap is made between the box and the roll sheet when the roll sheet is used and positioning between the roll sheet and the box is insufficient occurs. Further, a problem that if the supporting member is not housed together with the roll sheet, it may be lost when it is not used for printing occurs.
The supporting member in the above-described first, second and third conventional embodiments is considered to be disposed in a approximately concentric circle of the shaft through the core of the roll sheet and a gap between the peripheral surface of the supporting member and the inner surface of the hollow core of the roll sheet is considered to be small enough though the rotation of the roll sheet is not prevented. The supporting member with such structure is required to be manufactured with high precision of the dimensions. The reason is that for example, if the core of the shaft of the supporting member is a little tilted based upon the surface in the lateral direction of the box (not parallel with the above-described surface), the roll sheet supported by the supporting member is also housed in the box with it tilted by the same angle. As a result, if the inner wall of the box or the supporting surface of the supporting member and the end surface of the roll sheet are close, the end of the roll sheet is contact with the inner wall of the box to result in damage of the roll sheet and poor rotation in printing. In such a case, as the roll sheet is not carried regularly, trouble that a plurality of lines are recorded repeatedly in the same location on the roll sheet occurs.